Flower Brick Friday Number 20: or should that be Foliage Friday ?
Not much by way of blooms left in the garden this week…But lots of foliage…So before the winter blooming shrubs and plants get into their stride I’ve used foliage and some…chillis.
The main contributor to this weeks offering, in my very special Captain Wentworth ,nautically-inspired and very special Isis Ceramics Flower Brick,
is my beautiful beech hedge.
Which as Jane Austen once wrote about her’s at Chawton, is now looking very well indeed :
You cannot imagine — it is not in human nature to imagine — what a nice walk we have round the orchard. The row of beech look very well indeed, and so does the young quickset hedge in the garden. I hear to-day that an apricot has been detected on one of the trees.
Letter to Cassandra, 31st May, 1811.
but of course mine in November is not looking as silky green as it did in the summer
But is clothed in many colours of the autumn spectrum.
Golds…
Yellows….
Greens….
All these….
So they are the backbone of this week’s arrangement
To which I have added some trailing ivy
There is a constant battle against ivy in my garden…I love it in the Wild Bit where it forms a carpet
and in the hedges on the eastern border of the garden, where it is a haven for wildlife…
and by the urn at the termination of the Beech Walk,
but it does tend to creep everywhere.
As I write Frank and Mark are rooting it out from the borders in the main garden, bless them.
To add some much-needed colour to this week’s brick, I’ve added chillies….
Which my son and I grew this summer, in a pot on the terrace.
They were small, bright and deadly-very hot ;-) And look good in arrangement, which many vegetables do……IMHO…
And so that’s it. A very simple arrangement this week….
But a colourful one.
Do have a good weekend my Reader, and keep warm and out of the rain.
Red and Green Together Be Seen in the Dark Time of the Year….
so sang Maddy Prior..and this is a short post about the red leaves of my cherry Tai-haku contrasting with the green leaves of the Lonicera x purpusii, Winter Flowering Honeysuckle.
A shaft of sunlight hit it this morning and I just loved the way the combination zinged.
Luckily I had my camera to hand and caught it. It is now blowing a gale and I don’t think any leaves will be left on that tree this time tomorrow……
Sir Roy Strong’s Garden: The Laskett
Good news for lovers of a certain style of gardening. Sir Roy Strong has decided to open his Herefordshire garden to the public on two days a week beginning from next April and continuing throughout the season till mid July.
The four-acre garden was created by Sir Roy and his late wife, Dr Julia Trevelyan Oman, who was one of my favourite theatrical designers. Christmas is not Christmas in my view without at least one re viewing of the DVD her Nutcraker which she designed in the Biedermeier style for the Royal Ballet in 1984 , and which is still in the Royal Ballet’s Repertoire.
Sir Roy’s book Creating Small Formal Gardens was one of the main influences on my garden and its design. His practical , no-nonsense and sensible advice saved me many, many hours of angst and ruinous expense. And inspired me to make most of my garden formal in style. It is now sadly out of print but if you admire formal gardening, and want to know how to achieve it in a small space this is the book for you.
Here is a link to a wonderful interactive plan of the garden at the Laskett by Jonathan Myles-Lea.
Her is part of the description of the garden from that website:
The Laskett is full of contrasts. The graceful cedar Lebanon casts reflective shade over a statue of Flora. Seen from a large plant-filled conservatory on the east side of the house, the arrangement of box-wood knots changes complexion, season by season, as one flower scheme supersedes another. But it is to the west of the house, after passing through the hedged courtyard enclosing a tiered fountain, that the box of delights begins to open up.
The first grand vista runs between narrow beech hedges to the Silver Jubilee Garden and the Pierpont Morgan Rose Garden where old roses, arise from beds filled with Hidcote lavender and alchemilla mollis. The Scandinavian Grove, a small area of woodland planting, is a brief interlude before eyes are directed along Elizabeth Tudor, a dramatic avenue of pleached limes. At the end of the avenue is the Shakespeare Urn, celebrating Sir Roy’s receipt of ‘Shakespeare Prize’ for his services to literature.
More gardens-within-gardens reveal themselves as you progress from the Beaton Steps, through Roy’s Birthday Garden, the Hilliard Garden, (where the initials ‘R’ and ‘J’ are set out in box plants in gravel), Mary Queen of Scots Walk, terminated by the Victoria and Albert Temple. Sir Roy and Dr Julia now share this structured paradise with two Maine Coon cats, Larkin and Souci. Their feline predecessor, the Reverend Wenceslas Muff, is immortalised in a leafy walk named after him, and a new monument.
Although the garden has been planned to the last inch, the pomp and circumstance of classical allusion allows for pockets of informal surprise. The orchard contains more than 100 apple varieties, and an intensely worked organic vegetable garden is productive all year round.
Mr Myles-Lee is going to be responsible for drawing a new plan for the garden’s website, together with producing merchandise to be sold in a shop on site. That sounds very enticing.
I’m so excited :I went there once on an organised garden tour,which was the ony way to be able to visit in the past, but this new arrangements frees up the visiting public. You can also stay at The Folly a cottage in the grounds of the Laskett,courtesy of the Vivat Trust. That would make for a very interesting and charming holiday I think…can you hear plans being made? Yes, you can ;-)
I hope it is a successful venture..I can wait to go again. And you can be assured that once the website is available I shall be linking it from here;-)
Ch-ch-ch Changes….
to two different parts of the garden ( for all the David Bowie fans out there…).
Last Friday I intimated that the contents of some interesting brown parcels were going to help me begin transforming the appearance of the Iris Rainbow Garden. I didn’t tell you that I was also going to add some new plants to the Weeping Standards Garden too. Tut-tut….how remiss…
I spent most of Friday with my garden helper, Frank taking the first steps towards this. Frank, bless him, did most of the heavy work, because as you know I can’t do much,useless article that I am.
Let’s look at the contents of the boxes.
I do have to say the box plants had some of the best fibrous roots systems I had ever seen. The plants were about 12 inches in height.
These were planted on the corners of each of the four beds in the Weeping Standards garden, to add some additional formality/structure.
I think they may be grown into conical pyramids, or balls. I’m quite good at shaping both with my new fangled rechargeable (and most important) light weight shears.(I adore them!).
But I may get ambitious and add a ball to the top of a pyramid…or even make spirals…..I won’t be sure till I an idea of the scale/effect needed , for however much you plant thing on paper, it can all change on the ground. …let’s see how this all develops……
The yew bushes were also of a very good standard.
You may recall that my daughter asked me to see if I could replicate part of Ham House Garden sometime in the summer. Go here to see the effect she wants……on a much larger scale than I can ever hope to achieve of course ;-)
I think the yew pyramids will add some variety to these beds and continue the interest throughout the season after the iris have flowered.
We soaked the plants for an hour before planting-always a good idea with bare rooted plants.
Then placed them out at the junctions of the 16 triangular beds…
…and planted them accordingly.
It was a long and dirty job- we managed to achieve it all in between some very heavy showers of rain.
And we toiled under the close direction and beady eye of the Clerk to the Works- one of our friendly robins, throughout.
On Saturday, after a night of torrential rain had well and truly watered in all the plants, I added a top-dressing of well-rotted manure : we had mixed bone meal into the soil around the roots to aid growth, as we planted them.
And after all that I needed a very good rest ,with a cup of tea and a good book in front of the fire…not to mention the painkillers ;-)
So now we have to sit and wait for them to grow…..it will be interesting to see just how this develops. You will join me won’t you?
Flower Brick Friday Number 19: Roses and Hips
Every week I say “thats the last of the roses“…and every week I find more. I wonder for how much longer this state of affairs will continue?
Today I’m not using an Isis Cermaics flower brick but one of their candle pots. I have a pair of these and they used to hold a wonderful bluebell scented candle…long gone, long gone. So now I use one as a pen and pencil pot and one for little arrangements. It is decorated with three of their eccentric little monkeys…
….holding parasols….
flapping fans……
or eating bananas…..
Eccentric, yes, but I love them.
Scavenging around the garden for today’s arrangement I headed for the Old Roses Garden
Looking very different now from its floriforous peak in June/July…but treasures are still to be found
Some fabulous hips on Rosa chinenis “Parson’s Pink China”
So I gathered some for the arrangement
A few of Fanny Prices favourite roses (!) were still on the bush: not for nothing was this rose known as the “Monthly Rose”
It must have been seen as miraculous at a time when most roses bloomed only at midsummer.
A single rose of the old Polyantha rose , Natalie Nypels was available to pick…
So I took her too…
Some blooms of Gruss an Acchen were just viable
And so they were added to the mix
They are not so white as to make me worry about the ” Blood and Bandages ” curse are they ? No, of course not…….
And to hold it all together I added some sprigs of yew
Cut from one of the bushes in the Old Roses garden which Im late in training but an determined to do properly this year…or maybe next…
Which brings me to the two parcels that arrived today….
Full of yew and box to be planted in the Iris Rainbow Garden according to the new plan….
Im so excited about this! Weather permitting that is the job for the next two or three days, to plant them up. Let’s hope my poor body holds up under all the strain.
In the meantime, I’ll look at the last of my roses and my eccentric little monkeys ;-)
Do have a good weekend my Reader, have a good weekend…. and pray the storms keep away.
Wandering Violets
I adore violets…I love their scent and I adore eating violet creams.
And though I don’t know a bank where upon the wild violet nods :
“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.”
(From A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare.)
Nor would I want to use them to make a love potion
But I do have them all over my garden. And they are beginning to flower now,as they did last year.They should flower in the spring but they seem to have altered their habit…has anyone else noticed this?
Mine are the Wandering Variety….They were given to me as a clump by a rather famous, formidable but now deceased garden designer about 16 years ago. I told her I knew exactly where I wanted to plant them and she snorted, telling me they would find their own preferred spot.
She was right.
I planted the clump in the Crab Apple Tree Garden.
They have since migrated along the bottom of the leylandii hedges…
And under the beech hedge by the side of the house…
and have finally found a home where they flourish, by my front door.
There are hardly any violets left in the Crab Apple Tree Garden now … so the Grande Dame of garden designers was right. But then she always was… No wonder she snorted at me in derision ;-)
I’ve been Honestly Scrapped
Deborah of Green Theater gave me this Honest Scrap award by tagging me in her acceptance speech post yesterday.
I’m stunned because I’ve never received one of these awards before.
And as ever in life, there is no such thing as a free lunch or award, and the rules of receiving the award are as follows:
A . You must brag about the award.
This is difficult, for me, you know. I’m English, and we get very embarrassed by success. I can be suitably bashful, and mutter, “I am not worthy”,but..brag? Will this count? It will have to do…
B. You must link back to the person who gave the award you.
That’s easier to do…here is Deborah in all her Green Theatre Glory
C. You must share 10 honest things about yourself…a slightly scary prospect but still, rules are rules…..
D. You must give the award to 7 more bloggers who inspire you. Only seven? This will be hard indeed…….
So, to the “honesty” part of the deal…..
1. I am left-handed. This makes life difficult sometimes especially when using old-fashioned potato peelers. God bless the founders of the Left Handed Shop and Ned Flanders.
2. I buy too many books. Old or new….
My house is filled to the brim with them. I’m hoping my Christmas present of a Kindle from my husband will relieve the pressure on the joists in the bedrooms…..
3. I broke my neck in a road accident ( not my fault) years ago. This has affected my life considerably in a very damaging, physical way, though you could never tell from the way I walk( in fact the mere fact I can walk amazes me every day). I try to combat the pain and the troubles associated with it every day and rise above it. And most importantly of all, to stop moaning too much about it. If you catch me moaning on you are hereby authorised to stop me.
4. As a result of 3 above I can’t wear heels ( I know!!!! The Horror!!!!!) So, my permanent shopping quest is to find the snazziest, sharpest and prettiest flats to wear . My shoes need to be flat but they do not need to be boring.Bless you French Sole and Pretty Ballerinas both and please don’t ever go out of business.
5. Like Deborah, I truly hate my name. I wanted to be an Eleanor…or a Victoria..or an Elizabeth ( family names all). Anything but a Julie.
6. I am obsessed with my blog stats, even though I have one visitor whom I might rightly class as a stalker. He or more probably she clearly doesn’t seem to know that I can see his/her every move, every click and when he/she comes and goes whatever the time of day or night etc. .Still he/she comes back, day after day, hour after hour. I’ve shared this information with a few other fellow blogggers (for this person has “out-clicked to their sites from mine on a too regular basis not to be noticeably odd)and they are watching this person like hawks too…..Spooky.
7. I hate watermelon.
8. I was once in a lift with Eric Idle of Monty Python fame. To my eternal shame and to the chagrin of the French Scholar who is a big Python fan, I didn’t summon up the courage to speak to him…….
9. Apart from gardening my other great passion is Jane Austen and her world. I used torture you here with my references to her life and times too much and now do it elsewhere ;-)
10. I am distantly related to Stan Laurel. Yes, really.
Now to the really fun part, listing seven bloggers who inspire me. Only seven? Oh, OK then…….this list is not exhaustive ;-)
1) A Non-gardening blogger, I hope that is allowed…..Karen of BookishNYC. Karen is my great friend inside and outside of blogs. We bonded over a box of Charbonnel et Walker chocolates years ago and as two lawyers can commiserate with each other on the slings, arrows and outrageous fortune of the female lawyerly life. Her book blog is fun and gives precious insights into her life in NYC. I adore it and go there to laugh and get inspired by new books and pithy quotes. She also inspired me to begin blogging and for that I am eternally grateful. You may view that fact differently,of course…..
2) Alice Anastasia of Bay Area Tendrils who opens my eyes to the beauty of new installation style gardens. I love her blog, her style and her ;-)
3. Catherine of A Gardener in Progress. The first gardening blogger with whom I made contact, Catherine is grace in action. I adore reading her blog daily( for she posts with far more regularity than I ever do) and I love to see her blooms, her family , pets and the pond(I covet that pond…)
4. Flora (Carol) of Flower Hill Farm. Her blog is a gentle exploration of the beautiful landscape around her. Reading it is like taking a walk with Flora every time she posts and she is very congenial company.
5. The Dirt Princess of The Trials and Tribulations of a Southern Gardener. Mother to Bilbo , the gnome who came here and eloped with Jane Austen only to desert her and eventually surface again on the Carolina shores with my adored friend Anna of FlowerGardenGirl. Such a bubbly, fun blog by a bubbly, fun lady. I love both it and her.
6. Celia of Purple Podded Peas. The famous Fen Tigress, gardener and artist supreme from Suffolk, who makes me laugh with her tales of the Spice Girls( the chickens)and her Studio Assistants(the cats). I love her artwork and also love to hear her describe the process of creating it. And her garden is a thing of beauty.
7. Liz of Gwirrel’s Garden. Liz is a fabulous girl , who has the most stylish blog I know. I simply adore her photographic style and can look at her wonderful photographs for eons. When I’m rich I will commission her ;-)
So that’s it. Its been great fun and I’d like to thank Deborah once again for including me in this process. I hope you’ve found it fun too.
Remember, Remember the 7th November?
Shurely shome mistake?
Time constraints meant that most people- in our area at least- celebrated Guy Fawkes’s disastrous terrorist attempt on King James and the old Houses of Parliament last night and not on the 5th.
A good and raucous time was had by all as sparklers were flourished…
Everyone trying to spell their name in the flaming taper
And nearly succeeding ….
Rockets, Catherine Wheels and Roman Candles were accompanied by the traditional “Ooos” and “Ahs” from the assembled crowd…
The French Scholar taking his role as Chief Pyrotechnic Officer very seriously…
As the rest of us enjoying the show on a chilly but thankfully dry November evening, sipping Roasted Butter Nut Squash soup, hot dogs with onions and all the trimmings, jacket potatoes, and home- made chocolate brownies and crisp apple puffs.
As usual it is all over too quickly. I can’t wait till next year …..an ancient lesson of how to turn a near adversity into a triumph.
Flower Brick Friday Number 18:Autumn is Upon Us
Foggy mornings, frosty nights and the prospect of a bonfire and fireworks on Saturday-Gunpowder Treasons and Plot not being forgot, (Nevah!!!) but difficult to execute with ease on a school night-it really is autumnal at the moment
And this week’s Isis Ceramics flower brick represents this. The flower brick is obviously inspired by 17th century Chinese porcelain designs
With a very simple design of flowers
and birds….
This kind of porcelain, exported into Europe from the east, inspired the makers of English and Dutch tin glazed pottery so the design is apt: they couldn’t replicate the body of the pots, which were expensive and made of the secret material- porcelain-but they could copy the patterns on a relatively cheap to produce medium. And that is how ”delftware” came into being. The fashion for blue and white porcelain( and its imitations) was brought from Holland to England when William and Mary of Orange came to live here after ascending to their join thrones in 1689. And of course this is the style in which the state rooms at Chatsworth have now been restored.
If I put a 17th century tulipiere on my Christmas List do you think Father Christmas would bring one? I’ve been a very good girl and I’m sure I am not on the naughty list….No? You are probably correct……let’s get back to our flowers….
The pink (pink!!! not blue, dash it!!!) hydrangea is still holding onto its flower heads which have now taken on a Chinese paper texture
The heads of three blooms make the base of this week’s arrangement
In addition, to provide some height, Ive used some greenery-yallery flowers: Nicotiana Langsdorfii.
These are the remnants of the ones that grew in pots on my terrace this summer. I adore these beautiful green tubular flowers.
Ive also used some evergreen twigs and flowers from Vibrunum tinus-that stalwart of the winter garden.
And some snips from another viburnum with similar but far more fragrant flowers:
Vibrunum bodnantense,named after the magnificent Bodnant Gardens in Wales.
This shrub will now flower till the spring ,and just a few sprigs of its flowers will scent a whole room with a sweet honey smell for days.
As a filer I’ve used some of the feathery springs of my variegated spiera, which is almost fully evergreen with me.
And that’s it- an autumnal Chinese inspired brick, for a week when Chinese fireworks will fill the air.
And while I can’t promise to emulate the magnificent display the Duke of Richmond managed on the Thames in London in the late 18th century…
Im going to try and take some pictures of our celebration tomorrow ( including an 85 shot Roman Candle) to share with you: fiddling with my camera I’ve noticed a “fireworks”setting and I cant wait to try it out ‘;-)
Time for the gardeners here to heave a sigh of relief…..
and for me to thank them for their indulgence.
I have added another string to my virtual bow and have posted my first post on Austen Only, where I hope to blog about once a week or so on a Jane Austen social history inspired topic.
Thus leaving this place relatively free of too much non-gardening Austen posts ;-)
I do hope you will go over there and join me in a detailed view of her world ;-)
